All About : Princess Anna
=Princess Anna= Introduction Princess Anna of Arendelle is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 53rd animated feature Frozen. She is voiced primarily by actress Kristen Bell. At the beginning of the film, Livvy Stubenrauch and Katie Lopez provided her speaking and singing voice as a young child, respectively, and Agatha Lee Monn portrayed her as a 9-year-old (singing). Created by co-directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, Anna is loosely based on Gerda, a character of the Danish fairytale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. In the Disney film adaption, Anna is depicted as the princess of Arendelle, a fictional Scandinavian kingdom, and the younger sister of Princess Elsa (Idina Menzel), who is the heiress to the throne and born with cryokinetic powers. When Elsa exiles herself from the kingdom after inadvertently sending Arendelle into an eternal winter on the evening of her coronation, fearless and faithful Anna is determined to set out on a dangerous adventure to bring her sister back and save both her kingdom and her family. The original fairytale in general and the character of the Snow Queen in particular posed long-term problems to adapt into a feature-length production. Several film executives, including Walt Disney, made their attempts towards the story and numerous adaptations were shelved as the filmmakers couldn't work out the characters. Finally, directors Buck and Lee solved the issue by portraying Anna and Elsa as sisters, establishing a dynamic relationship between these characters. Anna has received widespread critical acclaim from film critics, who praised the determination and enthusiasm in her personality. Bell was also extolled by various reviewers for her performance in the film. Along with Elsa, Anna is set to be inducted into the Disney Princess line-up, becoming the 12th official member. Voicing On March 5, 2012, actress Kristen Bell was cast to voice the adult Anna.1112 Livvy Stubenrauch was chosen to portray Anna as a young child,131415 while Katie Lopez, daughter of the husband-and-wife songwriting team of the film, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, provided the singing voice for young Anna in "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" musical sequence.1617 Additionally, Agatha Lee Monn, daughter of the film's director Jennifer Lee, portrayed teenage Anna in this song.7181920 Lee explained about these casting decisions, "We really wanted to use the first two verses of this song to show you Anna's personality. And we wanted the singing to be done by real-sounding kids, not necessarily Broadway kids."20 Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel (who voiced Elsa in the film) had both auditioned for Rapunzel in Tangled and had already known each other, but they didn't get the part.1821 Talking about her feelings when she got the part, Bell expressed, "Since I was 4 years old, I dreamed of being in a Disney animated film," she said. "It was the first goal I ever set for myself. It seemed like it would be a very unrealistic one."12 She described Disney movies as "the ones she watched over and over again when she was a kid," and continued, "I knew every line from The Little Mermaid. I love Aladdin. When asked about her favorite Disney character, Bell enthused, "Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Because I think it was a shift that Disney had, where a female lead - the "princess," I guess - didn't just want to find her mate. She was singing "I want to be where the people are. I want to see the world. I want to venture outside my comfort zone.""22 Bell described her initial reaction when she first found that she was cast as "I was in glee".23 Lee admitted Bell's casting selection was influenced after the filmmakers listened a couple of vocal tracks from The Little Mermaid, including "Part of Your World" that the actress recorded when she was young, stating that without these recordings, it would've been very difficult to the find the right one to play Anna.1824 The two directors, Buck and Lee, were also impressed by how Kristen and Idina related.925 "During one of our early read-throughs, Kristen and Idina sang a ballad to each other which had so much emotion that everyone in the room was in tears," Buck said. "It not only showed how great their voices were together, but showed the power the music would have in the story."26 However, Bell wasn't all confidence when recording with Menzel,1227 described the experiences working with her co-star as "nerve-racking".23 The duo had rehearsed at Idina's house a song called "Wind Beneath My Wings", in which Bell greatly commended Idina's powerful voice.23 Regarding the songs that she performed in the film, Kristen enthused, "We're singing the lovely songs of Kristen and Bobby Lopez, who wrote 'Book of Mormon.' So it's really, really funny music. It's really good music. They're amazing to work for."28 Director Jennifer Lee strongly believed that there couldn't be any other Anna but Kristen Bell, saying, "It was definitely a wonderful surprise hearing her voice auditions, not knowing that she had been classically trained. Also, she had such a warm, sweet voice. She was everything that we could've hoped for for Anna."27 Co-director Chris Buck shared Lee's ideas, commenting, "Kristen Bell for Anna was the very first person that we saw. We did a lot of casting to find Anna, but she just hit it out of the park. From the beginning we loved her, and she just kind of became Anna and Anna became her. I don't know which one is which."2930 Idina Menzel was also surprised by her co-star's singing ability, stating that, "I didn't know how great a singer she was. I quickly found out and need to constantly tell her because she doesn't tell anybody else! She's always playing it down."27 Songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez later commended Bell's quick comprehension of her ideas, saying that she would collaborate with the actress for "the rest of her life" if she could.31 Anna's animator Becky Bresee commented that Bell's voice "lends itself well, so you are taking bits and pieces."32 During production, Bell and Menzel had to do a lot of recordings and re-recordings, and were required to be together in the same room when on the key emotional scenes between the two sisters. "We even got Kristen and Idina together for a song. That really helped elevate the song because they have a duet in the movie and it definitely helped drive that," said producer Peter Del Vecho. Chris Buck later commented that getting the actresses in together as much as they could helped add the real, amazing chemistry between them and made them really interact.32 Bell's recording sessions were completed while she was pregnant, and later she had to re-recorded some of the lines after giving birth, as her voice had deepened.33 After watching the completed film, Bell described her performance as "cool and weird and surreal and jarring", expressed that she was really proud that Anna "came out like she did that directors let Bell do her like this."34 Awards Both Anna and Elsa was nominated for Best Animated Female by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, with only Anna winning the award.92 Frozen also won Women Film Critics Circle award in the same category. Designing and Characterization Process Anna in particular and the whole film in general had undergone a number of changes in the story, most notably making the heroine the younger sister of the Snow Queen.9 Describing the character's development process, director Jennifer Lee admitted, "Even with Anna there was a tug of war for a long time. There are elements of it that we didn't land on with Anna until late into production, so we changed some of the animation to support it." Bell generally described her character as "She doesn't have good postures, she's not very elegant, but she's a good person and she's utterly determined." Lee added, "She doesn't have any superpowers, but Anna is one of these ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing." Contrary to her sister Elsa who represents fear, Anna represents love, she is filled with optimism with an extraordinary heart. Director Chris Buck later stated, "Anna's secret weapon is love," while head of story Paul Briggs commented that she is "a character who is willing to stand beside you and stand up for what's right. Her sister was born with a condition that's shaped a world where Anna doesn't belong." In the images of Frozen's main characters released by Disney in July 2013, Anna and her role in the film was described as follows: Anna is more daring than graceful and, at times, can act before she thinks. But she’s also the most optimistic and caring person you’ll ever meet. She longs to reconnect with her sister, Elsa, as they were close during their childhood. When Elsa accidentally unleashes a magical secret that locks the kingdom of Arendelle in an eternal winter, Anna embarks on a dangerous adventure to make things right. Armed with only her fearlessness, a never-give-up attitude and her faith in others, Anna is determined to save both her kingdom and her family. In order to have one person fully understand and develop their own character, as well as later be able to impart that to the crew, the film's directors and producers decided to have character leads and supervising animators on specific characters.40 First-time character lead Becky Bresee serves as the supervising animator for Elsa.940 She described her job as "making the character more believable". To achieve this, she had to act out part of a sequence in the movie between Anna and Kristoff for a number of times, each of them emphasizing the character's gestures differently. "Anna's a little bit nervous and uncomfortable, and I had to find a way to put that into the animation," explained Bresee.9 Bell said that at first Anna was written plainer and more general. "In the first draft of the script she was written more, in my opinion, prissy. She was kind of specific and very girly," which Bell didn't find appealing. She admitted that she had always wanted to be part of Disney animated feature, but she "wanted to be a very specific type of princess", who "was way more awkward than the normal princesses", not someone with too good postures or too well-spoken.232841 As she was offered the role of Anna, she came up with a lot of suggestions for the directors. They were responsive and allowed the actress to mould the character the way she wanted, since they wanted the film to be truthful.2223 Bell significantly made specific changes to Anna, including the infusion and incorporation of the actress' own personality to the character,4142 embodying a relatable heroine,28 which received full support from the directors.43 She called the scene where Anna first meets Hans is a "typical Disney moment", as they come too close physically and find out that they both fall in love with each other. Bell wanted Anna's words to reflect what she herself would say in real life, which included some "nonsensical rambling". "I think I said, "This is awkward. You're not awkward. Me, I'm awkward. You're gorgeous. Wait—what?" Words just spill out of her mouth too quickly and she has to backtrack." Bell continued.22 Or the whole scene where she wakes up in the beginning with saliva all over the face, Bell "wanted her to also have hair in her mouth", which took inspiration from her own real life. "Sometimes I wake up like that. Then you have hair in your mouth, and you start coughing. The animators totally got what I was trying to do. It's cool, and way more fun when stuff is realistic like that, instead of the perfection of waking up with mascara on."23 Anna's snorting and tripping over also drew inspirations from Bell's real life.2342 Bell's recording sessions were also videotaped to assist in animating the character, and animators took into considerations even subtle things like the actress' biting her lip a lot.44 According to director Jennifer Lee, Anna is a bit flawed When asked about Anna's biggest charm, Bell enthused that "her charm is caught somewhere between her sincerity and optimism. Anna is genuine, sincere and compounded with optimism, and eternally optimistic people are the most charismatic people, much more attractive than those with a bad mood." She also expressed why the character seemed to loveable to her, "To have Anna in a situation where she starts the movie without any friends, because her lifestyle hasn’t allowed her to have a full kingdom. She runs around, because she wants friends."2341 Bell called the film's story is "another turning point" for Disney animation because the love depicted in this story is the love between siblings, a non-romantic love. Anna wants the world and she wants to explore, but she also wants to nurture the relationships around her, particularly the family relationship. "It's very non-traditional for a Disney movie," she added.34 Regarding Bell's influence on Anna, director Chris Buck said her personality was just so fun and energetic. "We had an Anna character but Kristen really came in and pushed it and made it even funnier and even sweeter I think, and more believable as a three-dimensional character," he enthused.45 He also admitted that he "fell in love with Bell's voice and Bell's spirit". Director Jennifer Lee said that she loved Bell because the actress shared a similarity with her, that girls could be funny. "So she was a fantastic collaborator," Lee added.4 Songwriting duo Kristen-Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez later commented that they had written a lot of first songs for Kristen, for Anna but, "The more we were working with Kristen Bell, the more, the more she influenced." They quickly understand who Anna was because Anna's Kristen Bell.46 Appearance Anna's costumes in the film were informed by the research of Norwegian clothing styles. Based on these findings, art director Brittney Lee and her team later found out what materials should be used for the costumes.32 Co-director Jennifer Lee created a cheerful wardrobe featuring "playful" floral patterns and saturated colors in order to accurately reflect Anna's personality. The animators also took into account the climate that Anna is living in, costuming her in heavy wools and velvets, reflecting traditional winter clothing of the Scandinavian area.4748 The animators added structures to the costumes in a way, such as pleated dresses, that allows movements, giving the character a free range of "twirling all she wants" throughout the film. In order to deepen the cultural context of the film, rosemaling, a traditional form of Norwegian decorative folk art, was added to almost every character's costumes.32 Anna and her sister, Elsa, also enjoyed a large number of types of costumes and the layers of costuming that have never been done before. As these characters are running around in the snow, they have to have petticoats, undergarments, capes, "and they have all these layers and layers of things that are all meticulously designed," Brittney explained. Disney Parks Anna and Elsa began meet and greets at Disneyland as well as Disneyland Paris in the winter; they have been making appearances ahead of their movie's release to theaters. As of November 2, 2013, the sisters are currently doing daily meet-and-greet sessions in the Norway Pavilion of Epcot. In California, Anna and Elsa are featured in a new winter themed area of Fantasyland. Also, both princesses are now featured in Disneyland Paris' Disney Magic on Parade, on a float also featuring Olaf. Recently, in early 2014, Anna also began making meet-and-greet appearances aboard the Disney Dream cruise ship. Also, on October 22, 2013, Anna and Elsa began early meet-and-greet sessions at Disney's Hollywood Studios (complete with a mountainous backdrop), though this was only temporary as their current location wasn't completed then. Anna also makes a few appearances in the Disney California Adventure spectacular, World of Color alongside Olaf, Sven and Kristoff, and later alongside Elsa. In Disneyland Paris, Anna plays a major role in the holiday themed version of Disney Dreams! serving as the co-host with Olaf. Anna also makes an appearance in the Frozen segment in Celebrate the Magic at the Magic Kingdom. ---Amazing Character and Personality , She deserves to be one of the best princesses. -Founder of this Wiki , Elsa Anderson. Category:Inspiration for Gerda (The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen) Category:A Rapunzel (Tangled) clone Category:Characters Who Are Similar To Rose Red (Snow White and Rose Red)